Google Street View Imagery updated for CanadaGoogle Maps now includes new and updated Street View imagery from across Canada. In our effort to build the world’s most accurate, comprehensive and user-friendly map, we have driven thousands of kilometers of public streets, roads and paths across Canada, showcasing the beauty and splendour of our great country. Please visit the Street View homepage to learn more about where Street View is available, the fleet of Street View vehicles, and to view amazing Street View imagery from museums and natural wonders from around the world. As always, we are conscious that Canadians value their privacy and security. In addition to automatically blurring any faces and legible license plates found in our images, we continue to offer very simple tools to help Canadians request further blurring if they wish. Learn more about these privacy tools here.Posted by Aaron Brindle, Google Canada

Ernie Coombs would have been 85 today. And to celebrate the birthday of the man behind CBC’s Mr. Dressup, Google.ca ran a very special doodle on its homepage.Mr. Dressup, along with his puppets Casey and Finnegan, were Canadian institutions for nearly 30 years. And for Google Doodler Ryan Germick, taking on an illustration to honour an icon of Canadian childhood was not something he took lightly. Listen to CBC Radio’s Carol Off interview Ryan on As It Happens about today’s doodle and what it’s like to be a Google Doodler.We hope you enjoyed today’s Doodle as much as we did ... and we’ll leave you with some sage advice from Mr. Dressup himself: “Keep your crayons sharp, your sticky tape untangled and always put the tops back on your marker.”Posted by Aaron Brindle, Google Canada

Despite their playoff runs, neither the Argos or the Stamps were the most searched CFL teams on Google.ca this year.Here is the list of Canada’s favourite CFL teams by volume of searches on Google.ca in 2012:

1. B.C. Lions

2. Winnipeg Blue Bombers

3. Saskatchewan Roughriders

4. Edmonton Eskimos

5. Calgary Stampeders

6. Toronto Argonauts

7. Montreal Alouettes

8.Hamilton Tiger-catsPosted by Aaron Brindle, Google CanadaWith Grey Cup weekend upon us.... who is Canada's favourite team on Google?According to Google Trends, the Calgary Stampeders generated 33% more searches on Google.ca over the past month than the Toronto Argonauts. However, heading into the Championship game, the teams appear to be neck-and-neck.Despite their playoff runs, neither the Argos or the Stamps were the most searched CFL teams on Google.ca this year.Here is the list of Canada’s favourite CFL teams by volume of searches on Google.ca in 2012:

This past week, 80 members of Ad Women of Toronto visited Google’s new Toronto office to explore the topic of “Women & Technology.”

Women@Google hosted a panel with five heavy-hitters from the Canadian tech industry with backgrounds ranging from project management and sales finance to advertising and software engineering. Entrepreneur Elaine Kunda, tech leader and consultant Michelle Nanjad, and Mavis Huntley, head of integrated production at john st., joined Google’s Melissa Dominguez (tech lead for Gmail iOS) and Natasha Walji (head of sales finance for Canada) for a great discussion of the opportunities and challenges women can face in the tech and business worlds.

The panelists explored the shortage of women in STEM careers, the journey to C-level positions, the importance of mentors, and the perceived barriers women in technology sometimes face and how they can be overcome.
In response to the much debated question of how women can best achieve a work/life balance, the panelists agreed that there is no singular path to happiness or success. But strong support networks were often a factor. For every woman who appears to “have it all,” there’s often supportive partners, family members, child care providers and communities that help her succeed.

The evening closed with a reflection on our connection to technology and how, in its various forms, technology can be used to increase the education and economic development of women and girls – not just in Canada, but across the globe.Posted by Kristen Butler and Lisa Boulanger, Women@Google Canada

Google Canada has a new home! Today, with a little help from Premier Dalton McGuinty and federal Minister Peter Van Loan, we officially cut the ribbon on our new headquarters at 111 Richmond Street West. Located in one of downtown Toronto’s heritage buildings (originally designed by architect Peter Dickinson), the thoroughly renovated space is full of fun, whimsy and more than a few nods to this great city.Google’s workplace environments are a critical part of our culture, crafted in ways that encourage collaboration and creativity while promoting happier and healthier Canooglers (Canadian Googlers). There’s a gym, massage room, music room for mid-day jam sessions, ping-pong, old school arcades and, yes, foosball as well. Throughout the office there are works of local artists and a number of design features which highlight Canadian landmarks.

Fore! Giving us the opportunity to clear our minds -- and instill some healthy inter-office competition -- the office also includes two open-air terraces on either side of the building equipped with 5-hole mini-golf. Each hole is inspired by some of Toronto’s architectural iconography, including the CNE’s Princess Gates and the Bloor Viaduct. Like all Google offices, we are committed to creating a green and sustainable workplace and strive to be the most environmentally responsible office in Toronto. The carpeting is made from recycled fishing line pulled from the ocean floor, and one of several micro-kitchens includes a partition wall crafted from orphaned bicycle parts recovered from all over the city.We believe that Canada’s digital economy is full of potential. Today we are about 400 Googlers across four offices – in Kitchener-Waterloo, Montreal, Ottawa and now here at 111 Richmond Street West. This move caps two years of exceptional growth of our team here in Toronto, and moving into this beautifully restored building, we’ve made sure that we still have plenty of room to keep growing.We’re thrilled to have a new home and look forward to continuing our work delivering the best possible web experience for Canadians and their businesses. Posted by Chris O'Neill, Managing Director of Google Canada

If you ever dreamed of playing in a band, now’s your chance to be a rock star. JAM with Chrome is an interactive web application that enables friends in different locations to play music together in the Chrome browser on their computers. No matter what your level of talent—from daydreaming air guitarist to music pro—you can JAM together in real time over the web.

When you enter the site, you can choose from a selection of 19 different instruments, from acoustic and bass guitars to drum kits and keyboards. Once you get playing, you can switch instruments as often and as many times as you like.

In the default “easy mode” you can experiment by clicking individual strings, drum pads or keys, or you can play around with the four different autoplay functions and let the machines do the work. Switch to “pro mode” to play any instrument using your keyboard.

Invite up to three friends in different locations to join your JAM via the sharing buttons on the site. Here’s “Keyboard Cat” jamming with his friends:

JAM with Chrome is a Chrome Experiment that uses the latest modern web technologies, including HTML5 features such as the Web Audio API, Websockets, Canvas and CSS3. For more detailed information on the technologies used, check out the technology link in the app.

In the 21st century, Internet skills are life skills -- and digital literacy is the key to leading a healthy and productive life, both online and offline.

This week, Google Canada is proud to be participating in Media Literacy Week, an initiative of MediaSmarts, one of the leading media literacy organizations in Canada.

Young people don’t just use the Internet to play games or chat with their friends. According to Pew’s Research on the Internet and American Life (and my own experience as a parent), young people are going online to get material for schoolwork, follow arts and music interests, research health issues, play games, and get news. Just under half of them have bought things online like books, clothing or music. Of course, they are also using these tools to connect with their friends and family to share details of their lives and interests.

That’s why media literacy and digital literacy skills are increasingly important - for young Canadians, their parents, and their teachers, and why Google Canada works with organizations like MediaSmarts, and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection to provide Canadians with educational materials, teacher training, and online tools to help them make a safe and secure transition to a life lived online.

With that in mind, there are a number of Google tools that parents and teachers can use to choose, control, and customize their kids’ experience online. Earlier this year, we launched the Google Family Safety Center, which includes step-by-step instructions for using safety tools built into Google products and other best practices for families to consider.

At YouTube, we have developed a Digital Citizenship Curriculum to help secondary school teachers speak with their students about how to be responsible digital citizens, especially as they explore how to integrate multiple forms of media in their lives.

In the US we’ve partnered with the Family Online Safety Institute and other online companies to create A Platform For Good, a site meant to start a dialogue about what it means to participate responsibly in a digital world.

After all, we should see digital literacy as an essential step in preparing Canadians - young or old - to recognize and use technology as a vehicle for personal growth, economic opportunity and social change.

By 2016, the digital economy will have an economic impact exceeding $4.2 trillion across G20 countries. At this point, more than 3 billion people worldwide will be connected to the Internet – and among them, one billion will become online for the first time in the next two years alone.

Digital technology is transforming our businesses at lightning speed, changing the way we communicate, share information, and serve our customers. Canadian consumers are embracing this change and are among the most connected people in the world, but by most measures of innovation and productivity, there still exists a looming gap between Canada and its peers that governments and businesses are seeking to close. Now, more than ever, our businesses are being challenged to adapt quickly to a digital economy where e-commerce, social networking, and advanced new technologies are causing radical shifts across industries old and new.

A Connected Canada: Leading the Digital Economy as Technology Transforms our World (November 5, 2012)

This Monday, join Shelley Broader, President & CEO of Walmart Canada, Hon. Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development & Innovation, Tawfik Hammoud, Partner & Managing Director (Toronto) of the Boston Consulting Group, and Google Canada's own Chris O’Neill at the Economic Club of Canada for a conversation on how Canada can seize the opportunities of this growing global sector, how our businesses can be more innovative, and the trends that are now shaping our world.Posted by Leslie Church, Google Canada